Print Size: 30" x 40" (Frame: 30" x 40") Date: 1810, 1819
The Old Senate Chamber is the architecturally distinguished site of some of the greatest and most dramatic moments in American democracy, the scene of impassioned debates by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and others, as the country wrestled with slavery, territorial expansion, and the momentous economic policies that would impact the course of the nation. In the 19th century “Golden Age of the Senate” visitors filled the open “Ladies’ Gallery” along the curved west wall to watch history in the making by senators seated below.
The semi-circular room, modeled after the great amphitheaters of antiquity, is 75 feet long and 50 feet deep. It is crowned by an elaborately coffered half dome pierced by a central oculus and five smaller circular windows that originally filled the room with daylight (now artificially lit). The chamber is located on the second floor of the north wing of the U.S. Capitol building. Designed by Benjamin Latrobe in 1808 and completed in 1810, the room was destroyed soon after when the British set fire to the Capitol during the War of 1812. The chamber was rebuilt and enlarged at the request of the senate, and completed in 1819 by Charles Bulfinch who took over after Latrobe’s resignation. The senate occupied the chamber for the next 40 years but, as more and more states were admitted and the Union doubled in size, spacious new quarters were created in 1859. The Old Senate Chamber was then used for the next 75 years by the Supreme Court until the judiciary moved to a long-awaited new building in 1935. Thereafter the chamber became a general meeting room before being completely restored in time for the Bicentennial of 1976. Today the chamber serves as an historic museum.
